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Tuesday, July 3, 2018

The Long Hard Road to Reunion #amediting #scifirom

Jasmine: I help you, Hand that Feeds!
I do tappity tap on keys, you fetch me treats, yes?

It. Is. Done. The edits on Reunion at Kasha-Asor. I finished last Thursday, despite Jasmine's attempts to help and even though I dropped my laptop on the floor and had nothing but a black screen for a heart-stopping two minutes. I sent it off to my trusty proof reader for a check over.

This has taken an eternity to complete - well, it feels like it, lol. The original story is ancient, and mostly written as notes to myself about what happened in the year between books one and two of my Redemption series.

It was never intended to be a published piece...until my editor proposed starting her own publishing house and offered to publish book two - at that point rejected by then my publisher (Lyrical Press) who had published book one - as part of the launch. Since she was planning to use crowdfunding, I offered up Reunion as something to add to the bonus material for donors. Unfortunately the publishing house had to close due to personal reasons before the launch had really got off the ground, but by this point I figured maybe it was worth continuing with Reunion. I'd got the rights back to book one during a buy out of Lyrical Press which gave me the option to leave, and had decided to go ahead with self publishing both books. Reunion would be an added bonus...or so I thought. Checking back through my emails, the first correspondence I have with myeditor Dani on Reunion asks for more content. That was the 22nd of October 2015, so four months shy of THREE YEARS! Three years for a novella!

So maybe you can understand the overriding relief to have it done. Reunion has changed a lot from those sketchy notes to a story that, while not as tumultuous in the telling as the two main books, has certainly been traumatic on my side of it! And my poor, poor editor too. At 39K it's not the short bonus story it started out as, and I hope it'll satisfy those readers who have had to wait for more books, since I originally promised book three by 2017. Ooops?

Reunion was originally due for publication in May last year on the five year anniversary of Keir: Book One of Redemption. Now I'm thinking of an autumn release, to tie in with the season the book is set in. Being as it's already more than two years overdue I figure two more months won't make much odds. It'll be there for when everyone is back from their summer holidays and the monsters are back to school. ;) And since I know for sure it'll be releasing this year, I'm going to share a little teaser (this has kept me going with Reunion on the days when I just wanted to chuck it in the virtual bin. Which was most days).

And that's all you get. Bwahahaa!

Writing Update
And there's more. Not only is Reunion done, but I've set my Christmas short story off to my editor. A Very Merry-traxian Christmas is going to get a proper edit and an official release instead of being a winter freebie as it has been for the last two years. Hopefully it'll be ready for release at the start of December, but I'm not promising. I hate breaking promises...

Chook Update
The chicks will be eight weeks old tomorrow. Already! They're so big and fully feathered, and a right bunch of mischief! I am both happy and sad to say I have already found homes for four of them, with a lovely lady who adores the d'uccle breed and that I got talking to about them through a mutual group on Facebook. Knowing that they're going to a fabulous and caring home with a real enthusiast makes letting them go a bit easier, though not completely. The runt of the hatch - currently called Tiny Two-Toes because she has two toes fused together on one foot, though it doesn't stop her giving me the runaround - will be staying with us. I didn't want to sell on a bird with a deformity, or let all of my babies go. I've been so lucky that all of them were female!

With the roasting weather, I felt safe enough
giving two of the chicks a bath for their yucky mucky feet.
Not only do my girls sound and run like velociraptors -
get them wet and they look like them too!

Mama Firefly with her babies

Tiny Two-Toes, venturing off alone again!

I spy...

...a feather out of place on my foot!

Littlies out with the big girls!

Quick preen

Backdate
I've missed posting about a few things. One was the first Colchester Geek Con, a new event to our town and hopefully one that will return. I got a selfie with the lovely Hattie Hayridge, who played the female AI Holly in the long-running UK comedy scifi series, Red Dwarf.

What a pair of Hollies!

Eldest got a shot with the chatty James MacKenzie, who played magical warrior Raven in the CBBC adventure game series of the same name.

13yo finally found a chair worthy of him, bwahahaa!

And yesterday I met my Doctor - at least, the one I grew up with - and one of my two favourite companions of that era (the marvellous Liz Sladen has sadly passed on): Tom Baker (4) and Louise Jameson (Leela) at London Film Fair. I've now met all four of the remaining Classic Who Doctors, but unfortunately it looks like my plan to meet Eccleston and Capaldi won't be happening after all, as will my hope to have met Jewel Staite (Kayleigh) to increase my Firefly cast collection. I just can't afford it. O well!

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